Thursday, July 18, 2013

Where are the lifeboats?

The Maori Party AGM was held in Whakatane at the weekend. This was in Te Ururoa Flavell's electorate. It sits in the one-third of the electorate (the Eastern part of Waiariki) that voted for Mana's Annette Sykes ahead of him or the Labour candidate. There didn't look to be that many there - certainly not like the number at Mana's AGM earlier in the year.

NZ Herald:
--In his slightly tearful acceptance speech as the Maori Party's new co-leader, Te Ururoa Flavell spoke of his previous role as the party's official dishwasher.He said he had seen footage of himself and Pita Sharples during the recent Ikaroa-Rawhiti byelection.Dr Sharples was talking importantly on his phone. Mr Flavell was in the kitchen doing the dishes. "I've known my role in this party since it started."He said the background work was some of the most important there was - the work of chiefs. Then, to much laughter, he added: "But I've finished that now, I hope."
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Dishwasher of the Maori Party and then penny-diver for John Key isn't much of a career path.

--Mr Flavell said he hoped to sit down soon with co-leader Tariana Turia and new party president Naida Glavish to map out a plan for the 2014 election and select candidates good enough to ensure the party could hold on to its electorates, especially after the retirements of Dr Sharples and Mrs Turia next year.
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Considering Flavell has spent all of the past three years in intrigues with the party president to oust Pita Sharples - and in the end the only reason anyone could come up with is that he is supposedly too old - all the drama and risk of selecting a new candidate and the loss of incumbancy is entirely generated by Flavell. The loss of the Tamaki Makaurau seat is a sacrifice Flavell will make in order to get to the top.

All the tears and the self-serving nonsense from Flavell about having "fallen into the zone" and proclaiming his unopposed leadership bid as being somehow an unexpected, serendipidous piece of good fortune must have been hard for Sharples to take. It is hard for anyone who knows what has happened to take seriously. Flavell's weeping is crocodile tears, shed after an orchestrated campaign against the leader that begun with him manufacturing the sacking of Hone Harawira - to eliminate his rival.

Everything since has culminated in this anti-climactical, hollow, default appointment. Having pushed the best officer overboard, he has now stormed the bridge and shot the captain, and as the cold waters rush across the decks he proudly announces down the loud hailer to the drowning passengers below: "This is your Captain speaking!" He has that political blink of an eye between now until the election to order the re-arranging of the deck chairs.